Author Archives: John E.

The Vendy Awards: Philadelphia Street Food’s Biggest Day

Calm before start of Vendy Awards

There aren’t too many ways to better spend a sunny June Saturday afternoon in Philly than outside at a park overlooking the Delaware River while sampling dishes from the best food trucks in town.  Such was the case this past Saturday at Penn Treaty Park at the third annual Philadelphia Vendy Awards.

The Vendy Awards are the “Oscars of Street Food.”  They were originated in New York City by the Street Vendor Project  and expanded to Philly in 2011.  The Vendys allow the best of food trucks to be recognized, all while raising money for The Food Trust.  Attendees buy one ticket for the event and have all-you-can-eat access to all the food trucks as well as good beer and water.  Fifteen trucks competed for the coveted Vendy Cup, the Best Dessert, the People’s Choice and the Tide Stain Eraser’s Messy yet Tasty Awards.

Folks who arrived by the 2 p.m. start had their choice of trucks to hit up before the lines started forming.  It wasn’t long before the Vendys were a sea of people snapping photos of their food, devouring them and going back for more samples.

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Racing vs. Training: What’s the Proper Balance?

RacingTraining

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have one friend who runs every day (and runs pretty fast).  His grand total of official races he’s run?  One.  He just does not do races.  Another friend, who also runs every day, once logged around 40 races in one year.  And somewhere between those two is another friend who runs perhaps three times a week but plans to run 17 races this year.

What’s the proper amount of races per year in which to participate in comparison to just training?  Having races for which to train can help motivate people to keep running even in the dead of winter, the sogginess of spring or the heat of summer.  On the other hand, too many races can burn someone out.  In fact, having too many races may actually be detrimental to your performance due to lessened training and recovery time.

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The Most Important Advice for Philly Beer Week

Philly Beer WeekIn the years of doing Philly Beer Week, the week (plus) long celebration of America’s Best Beer-Drinking City, I’ve learned one important lesson in how to make it through: pace yourself.  With over 1,000 events in ten days, you can’t possibly hit up everything.  In fact, you won’t even be able to make it to many of the events that sound appealing because they either conflict with each other or you need to rest or stay sober one or two nights.  Instead, the best practice is to make it to a maximum of perhaps one event a night (ok, maybe two, if you do the other one during the day).  Go through the list, pick and choose some favorites and enjoy those without feeling bad about missing others.

The second most important advice: find events for brewers you don’t experience often or for specialty beers.  There are so many great regional brewers, and most have special events throughout the week.  Likewise, there are many brewers from other parts of the country who produce beers we don’t typically get here in town.  Take advantage of their presence.

Philly Beer Week has become the largest beer festival, in terms of events, in the country devoted to craft beer.  Let’s all enjoy.